Chicken korma is a beautifully balanced and delicious dish where meat is cooked with various spices in a yoghurt-based sauce and ground almonds-cashew paste. This creamy Quick Chicken Korma recipe has tender chicken in a mildly spiced curry sauce. Korma curries are spiced not for heat, but for flavour!!
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in April 2015 and has been updated with Video and replaced with better edited pictures for comprehensiveness and freshness.
Today, I’m going to share with you Quick Chicken Korma. I’m calling it Quick Chicken Korma because a traditional korma will have a long slow cooking, but this is a quick version using a pressure pan/pressure cooker.
Food is nothing but memories. I still remember as a kid when I used to visit my grandparents, Sundays meant meat for lunch. Those days, in most of the homes, meat was consumed only on Sundays. The men folk (here it was my grandpa) of the house would generally go and get the meat in the morning. The ladies of the house would start the ritual of grinding the masalas on the stone mortar just after breakfast. And I would be eagerly waiting for lunch time, as the whole house would be filled with aroma. This curry takes me back to my childhood. Meat for Sunday still continues at my home but other rituals do not exist any more…you know what I mean
!!
What is Korma/Kurma
Korma calls for the meat to be marinated in yoghurt and then meat along with the marinade is braised on a very low heat until all the juices condense down to a thick sauce. But since I do not have enough time today, this is a short cut but of course without any compromise in taste.
This Easy Chicken Korma recipe has the basic ingredients of a classic chicken curry with an extra almond-cashew paste and the chicken is cooked in a yoghurt-based sauce. The chicken korma you find in restaurants usually contain lots of ground almonds, cashew, coconut and thick cream. I use very little nuts and do not use cream, so you can call this Low Fat Chicken Korma. If you want a Quick chicken korma without the calories try replacing cream with yogurt for a diet-friendly treat. The blending of the almond-cashew paste with the spices gives the dish not-too-rich but subtly sweet, warm and spicy flavour, which is incredibly addictive.
Just remember, there is no rule that chicken korma has to be mild. I like the subtle flavour of this dish, but I also love my food spicy, so just dial up the chilli and you’ll create something magical and delicious. Come on, let’s cook this now!
Off to the recipe for my version of Quick Chicken Korma!!
Steps to follow for
Quick Chicken Korma:
Let’s Marinate Chicken:
- Clean and wash chicken. Cut chicken as desired. I like them small and bite sized so that the flavours seep into the chicken well.
- Marinate the chicken with red chilli powder, turmeric, yoghurt and salt under the section “To marinate” and set it aside for about 20 minutes.
Note: I was in a hurry and forgot to marinate with yoghurt. Please excuse, this method is also fine but I recommend to marinate with yoghurt. You can check out the updated version in my Video.
Grind Masala Paste:
- These are the ingredients required to grind to a paste.
- Grind ginger, garlic, cinnamon, cloves, poppy seeds, desiccated coconut, green chillies, cashews and almonds in a blender to a fine paste.
- Chop onion and tomato and set aside.
Note: First powder them finely without adding water. Then add a little hot water, soak for a minute and grind to a fine paste. Soaking in hot water aids easy grinding of the poppy seeds.
Making Chicken Korma:
- Heat oil in a pressure pan over medium heat.
- Season with whole dry spices under the section “To season”. Stir for a minute until you get the aroma of the spices.
- To this add chopped onions and sauté till they are slightly brown in colour.
- Now chopped tomatoes.
- Add marinated chicken and sauté for 2 min.
- Add the ground masala paste and mix well.
- To this add yoghurt (under the heading “To marinate”), coriander and curry leaves. (If you have marinated with yoghurt skip yoghurt and add the rest)
- Add remaining chilli powder and turmeric powder under the heading “Other ingredients”. Adjust spice to suit your taste.
- Fry until the raw smell goes away. This will take about 5 minutes.
- Now add required water to cover the chicken. You can adjust the consistency of the gravy to suit your requirement.
- Close the lid of the pressure cooker and cook over medium high heat for about 3 whistles. Turn off the heat.
- Open the cooker once the pressure subsides.
- Finally sprinkle garam masala powder, garnish with some fresh coriander and serve.
Serving Suggestions:
Chicken Korma makes an unforgettable combination when paired with chicken biriyani, vegetable pulao, coconut milk rice, roti, paratha, idli, dosa, or just with plain rice accompanied with rasam.
Quick Chicken Korma - Indian Chicken Korma Recipe (South Indian Style)
Ingredients
To Marinate:
- ½ kg Chicken Clean & Cut as desired
- 2 tsp Red Chilli Powder Adjust to taste
- ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1 Cup Yoghurt
- 1 tsp Salt
To grind:
- 1 inch Ginger
- 6 Garlic Pods
- 1 cm Cinnamon Stick
- 4 Cloves
- 1 Cardamom
- 2 tsp Poppy Seeds
- 1 tbsp Desiccated Coconut
- 4 Green Chillies
- 5 Cashews
- 5 Almonds
- ¼ cup Hot water for grinding Or as required
To season:
- 2 tbsp Oil
- 1 cm Cinnamon stick
- 3 Cloves
- 1 Cardamom
- 2 Bay leaves
Other Ingredients:
- 1 Onion Finely chopped
- 1 Tomato Roughly chopped
- 1 tsp Red Chilli Powder Optional
- ¼ tsp Turmeric Powder Optional
- Salt to taste
- Few Curry leaves
- ½ cup Coriander Finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon Garam Masala Powder
Instructions
Marinating Chicken:
- Marinate the chicken with ingredients under the section “To marinate” and set it aside for at least 20 minutes.
Masala Paste:
- Grind all the ingredients under the section "To grind" in an electric blender to a fine paste.
- First powder them finely without adding water. Then use slightly hot water, soak for a min and grind to a fine paste. Soaking in hot water aids easy grinding of the poppy seeds.
Making Chicken Korma:
- Heat oil in a pressure pan over medium heat.
- Season with dry masalas under the section "To season" stir for a min till you can smell the aroma of the spices.
- To this add chopped onions and sauté till they are slightly brown in colour.
- Now add chopped tomatoes.
- Add marinated chicken and sauté for 2 min.
- Add the ground masala paste, remaining red chilli powder and turmeric powder under the heading “Other ingredients”. Fry till the raw smell goes off. This will take about 5 minutes.
- Now add required water till the chicken immerses. You can adjust the consistency of the gravy to suit your requirement.
- Close the lid of the pressure pan and cook over medium-high heat for about 3 whistles. Turn off the heat.
- Open the pressure pan once the pressure subsides.
- Finally sprinkle garam masala powder and garnish with coriander.
Serving Suggestions:
- This korma is best paired with chicken biriyani, vegetable pulao, coconut milk rice, roti, paratha, idli, dosa, or just with plain rice accompanied with rasam.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Marinating chicken with turmeric and salt helps reduce the smell of chicken as well as tenderises the chicken well.
- Also addition of mint and coriander leaves add to the aroma and taste. Do not skip using them.
- You can go ahead and adjust the spices to suit your taste and preference.
- You can also add mint leaves (optional), which gives a different flavour to the korma.
- Use hot water to grind the paste, it eases grinding of poppy seeds.
- Cooking in pressure cooker saves time. You can also cook in a skillet following the same method. For this cook over medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes with occasional stirring. Then simmer and cook for 5 minutes till the chicken is fully cooked, soft and tender. When the oil starts to separate, turn off the heat.
- Vegetarians can replace chicken with Potato, cauliflower, kohlrabi or Mushrooms. You can also try with Paneer or Tofu.
YOU MAY WANT TO CHECK OTHER NON VEGETARIAN RECIPES FROM MY BLOG.
FEW POPULAR ONES ARE:
- Classic Andhra Style Chicken Curry
- South Indian Style Chicken Fry
- Crab Curry
- Fish Pulusu
- Fish Fry
- Egg Curry
- Masala Egg Fry
Many more to come!!…..STAY TUNED!!
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Happy Cooking 
Cheers!!
Padma.
